This is a training story
KHARKIV, Ukraine - There was something surreal in discussing the possibility of a wider Middle East war while outside, in the most exposed of Ukrainian towns, the air-raid sirens were wailing, signaling a threat of a wider European war.
Here is what I heard:
The soldiers I met north of Kharkiv, just 15 miles from the Russian border, did not say much, but they did not have to: A Polish volunteer group had just provided them an excavator for digging trenches, and this spoke for itself. With no weapons or munitions to launch any attack, they could only dig in, trying to withstand the advancing enemy. The excavator was brand new and they were grateful to get it - but they were distressed at having to take shelter instead of launching a daring attack.
My next stop was near Kramatorsk, about 150 miles south of Kharkiv, to see a military unit I know from several past visits. The previously playful and optimistic soldiers gave me a sobering litany of their limitations. Their commander spoke of their frustration as they observe the Russians with drones. Without 155mm artillery munitions from the United States, the Ukrainians can engage the enemy only when the Russians come close enough for locally made, short-range drones called FPV (first-person view) to attack as a sort of “replacement artillery.” His unit has some munitions, but “for half a year we have been able to respond only when there is a force of at least 40 or 50 Russians: We cannot waste our 155s for smaller groups.”
Calling up new troops will change little, he said, if there is no artillery to offer a cover for the infantry. “A month ago, of the 14 newly trained soldiers that we sent, all were ‘200,’” he said using military jargon for killed in action. “The Russians know that they can come really close to us, plus they have the REB, an electronic warfare system, which takes down our drones. We don’t have enough REB to do the same to them.”
Another soldier from this unit told me the armored personnel carrier that they have cannot go anywhere close to the town of Chasiv Yar - because, since they don’t have much artillery and REB, the Russians would destroy it within minutes. Chasiv Yar is the target of a sustained Russian offensive, presumably because Vladimir Putin would like to boast of taking this small town at the annual May 9 parade celebrating victory over Germany in World War II. “I see their Grad (multiple rocket launcher), but to neutralize it I would need to use 10-15 shells, and I cannot spare this many.”
I met another unit’s intelligence officer under a beautifully blossoming cherry tree, but the news he gave me was equally gloomy. Russians often sacrifice their soldiers to provoke the Ukrainians to reveal their positions, he said. It’s a “meat-grinder” tactic, he explained, in which inexperienced Russian troops are sent forward, followed by a detachment - the “zagrad otryad,” infamous since World War II - whose sole purpose is to block the young Russians’ retreat.
It’s to America’s shame that Ukrainian civilians are dying in Russian missile and drone attacks for lack of defensive weaponry due, at least in part, to the inability so far of the U.S. House of Representatives to approve military aid. Just Wednesday, three Russian missiles hit an eight-story apartment building in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing 17 people.
This week marks — finally — a reckoning. Beleaguered House Speaker Mike Johnson has struggled for months to come up with a legislative approach that would allow aid to Ukraine to pass the House with Democratic votes while also approving aid to Israel, which Republicans generally support, along with help for Taiwan. On Wednesday, despite continuing resistance within the GOP caucus, Johnson said he would go ahead with a plan to allow votes Saturday on separate bills to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan plus a fourth bill that’s a grab bag of GOP-favored policies.
Getting even to this point has been a nail-biting exercise for Johnson. There’s renewed momentum to force a vote on his ouster from the most extremist parts of his caucus. This action makes that effort more likely, given that motley Republican firebrands like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz staunchly oppose aid to Ukraine. With three days before the vote, it will be a nerve-wracking wait to see if Johnson’s plan survives intact.
We hope it does and that aid flows as soon as possible to Ukrainians who are desperately fighting to stave off Russia and Vladimir Putin. That Ukraine now is back on its heels in a war that began so poorly for Russia is due in no small measure to Republican dithering.
We have never wavered in our support for the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression, stretching back to the beginning of Putin’s brutal, illegal war. We’ve never heard any reasonable argument to the contrary.
A majority in the House also has been prepared for months to support Ukraine. It was only a distinct minority of Republicans pressuring Johnson on the issue that has kept aid on ice — to the delight of Putin.
Despite the threats to force a vote to remove him, Johnson has said he won’t resign the speakership. Democrats have signaled that enough of them would vote to keep Johnson in the post if Ukraine aid is passed and a vote on his removal is forced; they should follow through on that pledge.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite
Leaders in the push for Ukrainian aid include U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, whose district includes Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood. Quigley told us that if Johnson does right by Ukraine and gets the job done for the Ukrainian people, then there are “ways” for Democrats like him to help the speaker’s situation.
While such a spectacle — Democrats protecting a Republican speaker from elements within his own party — would be unprecedented, we wouldn’t mind such an outcome. Johnson’s long-term future as a leader within his party surely would remain wobbly if he survived an ouster vote thanks to Democratic votes, but the message to the country would be positive. Rational members of both parties would show they can cooperate on a matter of urgent national importance despite the bizarre political winds howling around them.
And a speaker courageous enough to stand up to the extremists in his own party on behalf of the greater good would be rewarded with bipartisan support. At a time when public confidence in democratic institutions is in the dumps, a reminder that this country still is capable of putting partisanship to the side and rising to the occasion when duty calls would be welcome.
First things first. The Ukraine bill must pass. The rule for House consideration provides for an unusually freewheeling amendment process, at least by the standards of that body. The potential for amendments designed to make the bill impossible for Senate Democrats in the Senate to support is uncomfortably high.
Given the lateness of the hour and the unconscionable delay by the House in considering the issue, it would have been preferable to vote up or down on the bill the Senate passed months ago to hasten its path to President Joe Biden’s desk. There’s clearly a majority for that Senate measure.
Johnson’s efforts to appease members of his caucus who appear unpersuadable add a significant measure of risk. As it is, we only can hope a reasonable aid package survives what is likely to be something of a circus on the floor on Saturday. Helpfully, Biden in a statement expressed strong support for the House foreign aid bills Johnson is putting forward and asked senators to clear them for his signature if and when they get to the Senate.
In the meantime, Ukrainian officials continue to make their case in this country. Just on Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal visited the University of Chicago and met with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Penny Pritzker, special U.S. representative to Ukraine, to press his nation’s case. Penny Pritzker noted her and brother J.B.’s Ukrainian heritage; their great-grandfather left Kyiv for the U.S. 140 years ago “to escape the Jewish persecution at the time,” she said.
Said Shmyhal, U.S. aid “is not charity. … We use this to protect our common values.”
His point may be obvious, but it needs emphasis given the times in which we live. The presumptive Republican nominee for president, who repeatedly has expressed admiration for Putin, has publicly called for ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia to end the war. That would only encourage Putin to rebuild his forces and attack Ukraine again, or perhaps some other European neighbor.
Not to mention the terrible signal it would send China in the continuing tensions over the future of Taiwan.
Support of our allies, promotion of democratic values and self-determination around the globe, and deterrence of authoritarians bent on aggression outside their borders — all of these are fundamental American values crying out for reinforcement in a fraught age in which regional conflagrations threaten to blow up into larger conflicts.
Ukraine is fighting on our behalf as well as its own.
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Meanwhile...
In Kostiantynivka, Olga Alexandrovna, another old acquaintance, welcomed me with flowers: “Ania, how could I evacuate from here?! Look at my tulips, they are so gorgeous this year.” We went inside the house, where she was born more than 60 years ago. Looking at her colorful packages of flower seeds, she said resolutely: “I need to sow all these, and care for our strawberry, black currant, tomatoes. And my orchids all have two stalks. … No, I cannot leave.” Artillery pounding could be heard, but Olga Alexandrovna assured me it was outgoing fire because if it were incoming her fluffy white dog would panic. “Mishka can tell the difference. He is my guardian.” She knew that buses were available if she wanted to evacuate; she has even prepared a small bag “just in case,” but unless Chasiv Yar - six miles to the east - falls, she wanted to stay.
Next I went to Kyiv where, a few days earlier, a Russian missile had destroyed the Trypilska power plant, the largest supplying the capital. Insufficient Ukrainian air defense is yet another shortage that costs human lives every day. We were lucky to have electricity in our area, and Mikhail Reva, a sculptor from Odessa, gave a master class on art and politics for young community leaders. Afterward, he was asked by a journalist what, in his opinion, was the source of so much determination in the Ukrainian ranks. I listened as he quoted Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: “Our secret weapon,” he said, “is that we have no alternative.”
